5.13.2013

I'm usually cheap, but not all the time....

The majority of the time, I'm a huge cheapass.  How do you ask?  Well, when it comes to clothes I very rarely pay full price for them unless it's a "gotta have it" kind of thing.  I pretty much shop the sales, and/or TJMaxx, and always try to get it for 70% off.  Yes, that's my goal.  I know it's crazy, but if you shop often enough, you'd be surprised what you can save.  For example, at Christmas, I got my husband a $25 hat from Banana Republic for only $2.  Yes.  It was on sale, plus an additional percentage off of sale, then I used some rewards I had from my credit card.  Out of pocket, I only spent $2.  Now THAT is my favorite kind of deal.

I may be the best at getting great deals on clothes, but you can get just as good of deals on home goods and groceries.  Whenever I have a coupon for something I know that I will use in the future, I hang on to it and keep an eye out for the product to go on sale before the coupon expires.  The other great thing is that you can double up many store coupons with manufacturer coupons.  I try to stick to the groceries that are on sale when shopping, especially produce since we eat so much of it.  We tend to stock up on whatever we can, though we do have very minimal space to stock up on goods.  The biggest thing we stock up on is laundry soap, since it goes on sale for $1.88 per container back home.  So we bribe my parents to get it for us, or stock up whenever we're home.  It's too big of a cost savings not to take advantage of it.  When there are big sales on produce, we try to buy as much as we have space for in our freezer, and freeze whatever we can.  Which works out to be cheaper and healthier for smoothies.

I save and pinch where I can.  Partially because right now nearly every extra penny is going into savings for our house, but also because why not take a little bit of time to research and clip coupons to save quite a bit of money in the long run.  I keep saying that once I'm rich and famous, I won't be lazy and just go out and buy whatever just because I have the money, but I still plan to shop smart.

So even though I do pinch and spend smart 95% of the time..... there was this absolutely "just gotta have it" kinda purse at TJ Maxx a couple months ago.  I carried it around the store for awhile, while I was deciding on whether or not to buy it... since it was more than I typically like to spend on a purse.  It was an originally priced $400 purse.... and gorgeous!  So.... I had to buy it.  I just love, love, love it.  And apparently others do too, since I get compliments on it wherever I go.  :))

Moral of the story:  If you spend smart most of the time, it allows for more smart "splurges."

Do you save where you can, so you have the capability to splurge when you want to?